General Motors U.S. Sales Down 4.7 Percent To 243,155 Units In June 2017

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General Motors reported 243,155 new vehicle deliveries in June 2017 for the U.S. market, a 4.7 percent decrease compared to June 2016. Sales were down at Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac, with Buick being the only brand to post an increase on a year-over-year basis.

Importantly, General Motors is in the midst of launching the most all-new crossover offerings into the U.S. market in its history.

“Our crossover renaissance began last year with the introduction of the all-new GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5, and continued this year with the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Equinox,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “The all-new Equinox is off to a strong start and we will leverage that momentum as we introduce four additional crossovers in the second half of 2017.”

“U.S. total sales are moderating due to an industry-wide pull-back in daily rental sales, but key U.S. economic fundamentals clearly remain positive,” said Mustafa Mohatarem, GM chief economist. “Under the current economic conditions, we anticipate U.S. retail vehicle sales will remain strong for the foreseeable future.”

GM U.S. June 2017 Sales Notes

Retail sales volume decreased 3.1 percent or 6,387 vehicles to 202,908 units, accounting for 83.4 percent of total June 2017 sales compared to 82 percent in June 2016:

Chevrolet retail sales decreased 1.5 percent to 138,996 units

GMC retail sales decreased 9.5 percent to 35,016 units

Buick retail sales increased 6.2 percent to 17,042 units

Cadillac retail sales increased 12.1 percent to 11,854 units

In the fastest growing U.S. retail market segment, GM’s crossover retail sales were up 23 percent, due largely to the strength of Chevrolet Equinox, which were up 36 percent

Fleet sales volume decreased 12.3 percent or 5,668 vehicles to 40,247 units, accounting for 16.6 percent of total June 2017 sales compared to 18 percent in June 2016:

Daily rental deliveries were down 54 percent or nearly 11,000 vehicles, as planned

Commercial deliveries were up 36 percent for its best June since 2006

Commercial and Government sales were 77 percent of GM’s fleet sales for the month

Average Transaction Prices (ATPs) & Incentive Spending:

GM’s incentive spending as a percentage of average transaction prices (ATP) in June was 12.0 percent according to J.D Power PIN estimates. That is equal to GM’s calendar year average and lower than any domestic and many Asian competitors

June ATPs were $35,657, up nearly $400 per unit

Inventory:

June month-end inventory was 980,454 units for a 105-day supply, representing:

An increase of 17,006 units from the 963,448 units at the end of May 2017

An increase of 4 days from the 101 days supply at the end of May 2017

GM anticipates to end 2017 with approximately the same day supply of vehicles as it did at the end of 2016, with fewer cars and more trucks and crossovers in the mix

Pickup and utility sales, a GM strength, are expected to be stronger in the second half of the year

The automaker will continue to monitor the marketplace and will make additional production adjustments if needed

Why do you expect continued economic growth?
We are overdue for a recession by historical standards. Plus, markets hate uncertainty –something Mueller will bring with Trump leaving himself so painfully unprotected.
Morgan Stanley predicts GM stock may increase by near 50% if GM were to transform Cadillac into a spun off captive Tesla or if Barra were to [email protected] up with another company to better allocate capital..
We will see.

As I said last month when there were high fives Camaro sales shot up ‘without incentives’, Midatlantic dealers were offering steep discounts up to $7,000 in May to dump inventory. I also mentioned those discount ads dried up when I flipped my calendar to June.

So I’m not surprised sales dipped in June for Camaros. Yeah, it’s only slightly more than the overall dip but still it’s a huge reversal from May’s sales spike.

I’ll also note dealers have extremely thin inventories of SSs here. Not that any of them carry extensive inventories of Camaros of any type but what they do carry emphasizes the low end and under $30,000.

I get GM is all anti-incentives, anti-fleets but I can’t believe they’re at a place on a classic economic price elasticity curve where a drop in price isn’t more than made up for in volume.

There is a mixed bag of info coming out lately on the state of our auto industry . The last few years have been very good for profits , selling at an annual rate of 17 to 17.5 million a year that is record territory . Some analysts are saying that there is a big problem with consumers buying vehicles with 72 month loans and there is a big percentive of consumers behind in their loan payments . Some banks are even worried about this trend and are starting to raise interest rates to slow this down . Plus the leases out there are at record territory with vehicles coming out into the market place at huge numbers in the next three years creating a problem for new car sales .
The problem arises with fairly new unused vehicles competing with new cars sales .
The industry is due for a pull back and we can already see it in lay-offs and longer plant shutdowns . And our economy is also over due for a slowdown , we are still on Obama’s track and once the influence of the new administration takes hold with nothing being done on tax reform and regulations , keep your portfolio as liquid as possible .